Pulsed
electric field (PEF) is considered to be a very promising
technology for mild cell disruption. The application of PEF for microalgae
that have a rigid cell wall, however, is hampered by the presence
of that rigid outer cell wall. A cell wall free mutant of C. reinhardtii was used to mimic pretreated microalgae
with removed cell wall, to investigate the possibility of using PEF
for protein release from microalgae. A complete release of hydrophilic
proteins from the cell wall free mutants was observed whereas PEF
treatment on the cell wall containing species resulted in substantially
lower protein yields. Additional experiments showed that even at low
energy input (0.05 kWh/kgbiomass), still about 70% of the
proteins could be released with respect to bead beating as reference.
These released proteins were water-soluble while the hydrophobic chlorophyll
remained mainly entrapped in cell particles. SEM-analysis of these
cell particles showed that PEF only opened the cells, instead of completely
fragmenting them into smaller particles. These results indicate that
PEF is an energy-efficient cell disruption method for selective release
of water-soluble proteins, after the microalgal outer cell wall is
removed. Enzymatic pretreatment to degrade the cell walls before PEF
treatment was shown to be an efficient method to remove the cell wall.
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